Posts tagged right
“The Five-Year Engagement” More Like the Five-Year Movie
0“More Like the Five-Year Movie”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
The Five-Year Engagement was made by the same people who made the 2008 Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and so it must be good, right?
Well, yes and no. Yes, it is good in some places, and no, it is not good in other places, mainly the scenes that go on for too long and the scenes that should have been cut in the first place.
Jason Segal and Emily Blunt star as Tom and Violet. They met a year ago at a New Year’s Eve party, which we keep seeing in flashbacks at various times throughout the movie.
They get engaged, and during a meeting with Tom’s relatives to plan the engagement party, one of the men comments that the men will all be wearing yarmulkes, of course. Violet says to Tom that he doesn’t have a yarmulke, and he replies that he does and, “It’s in my Jewish drawer.”
The story begins in San Francisco, and you can guess from the title that the engagement isn’t going to go smoothly, right?
Correct. Violet is working on her doctorate in psychology, and she gets accepted to a position at the University of Michigan, which will take two years to complete.
However, because Tom is a chef in a restaurant, he says that he can always find a job anywhere, and so they decide that Tom will move to Michigan with Violet, and they will postpone the wedding for two years.
I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, couldn’t they get married in San Francisco before moving to Michigan, or couldn’t they even get married in Michigan?
But if they did that, then the filmmakers would have to change the title of the movie, wouldn’t they?
Well, you can guess from the title that the two-year plan isn’t going to go smoothly, either, right? Violet’s work at the University of Michigan gets extended, and I don’t want to spoil anything, but at one point the situation gets so bad that it looks like there won’t be any wedding at all.
Now, you know how the DVD version of some movies contains deleted scenes? Maybe the DVD of this movie will thankfully be missing some scenes that should have been cut.
The Five-Year Engagement lives up to its reputation of being a comedy, but it is more like the five-year movie.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
City of Boulder Backs CU in shutting down 420 pot fest : the whole story
0The Boulder city council voted 7-2 to back the University of Colorado in it’s move to keep a bunch of pot smoking hippie outsiders off their campus on Friday April 20th 2012. The day, which lives in infamy in Colorado history is the day when Klebold and Harris gun down 13 high school students in Denver. It is also Hitlers birthday.
2012 Boulder City council
The city of Boulder is under fire by the US attorney for allowing ”pot shops” near schools. They have closed ten MMJ drug dealing operations this past month.
The city is also under fire from the DEA for it’s lax attitude toward illegal drug sales. The DEA has promised to target Boulder in the same way it id certain cities in California for massive busts under the Federal controlled drugs acts.
The council was almost reluctant in its 7-2 vote, but had to support the university if for political reasons. The two notoriously don’t get along and the city has tried to extend an olive branch over the past decade. Not supporting the 420 shutdown would have been a huge blunder.
Health professionals see the city council as largely responsible for Boulders burgeoning drug addiction problems when it allowed 100s of pot selling operations to open in the past 10 years.
Boulder also has so called Pain Clinics where class two narcotics can be purchased in the same way marijuana is sold. A phony diagnosis by a corrupt doctor and a prescription. The city too has enormous number of liquor outlets and more coming this year.
Boulder is know world wide as the biggest party school in the USA. Boulder has an extremely high drug addiction rate and alcoholism rate. It has since the feds started doing studies in the 1950′s The University has to be trying to put a stop to that notion.
A lot of drug addicts spoke at council last night in support of more drugs on campus, but their pleas fell on deaf yet sympathetic ears. The council has long been known to be a bunch of pot smoking elder hippies.
But in the end this years 420 pot binge is expected to be a nice party for CU students only on campus with music food and fun. No one else is invited.
University of Colorado closed to unauthorized visitors, non-affiliates on April 20
The University of Colorado Boulder announced today it will be open to students, faculty and staff on April 20, but closed to unauthorized non-affiliates due to the disruption caused by the 4/20 gathering.
“The gathering disrupts teaching and research right in the heart of the campus,” said CU-Boulder Chancellor Philip P. DiStefano. “The size of the crowd has become unmanageable, and limits our faculty, staff and students from getting to class, entering buildings and doing their basic work. It needs to end.”
Further the event is attended mostly by CU freshman from campus. The outsiders come from all over the state. It has been their premier rally for legalizing marijuana in the USA. Pot lobbyists and activists use the event to promote drug use. With nice weather crowds could exceed 50,000. The university does not want to be know as the hippie pot smoking capital of the universe. With larger crowds expected, rampant illegal drug dealing, the university has finally had enough.
The ACLU has taken up the pot smokers cause, but legal experts say it is a lost cause: The university has a right to shut down in the face of massive criminal activity .
Law enforcement officials say they are prepared for 1000′s of arrests if need be. Over 1000 police are expected. 300 swat officers will be held in reserve and over 5000 National Guard will be held in ready reserve able to deploy in 1 hours notice. One legal official told us the fines are so steep for everything that it won’t be worth it to even attempt to come to Boulder. DUIs cost an estimated $20,000. State patrol will be targeting hippies driving in from Denver.
Boulder County will have out door jail space for 10,000 ready to go. One university official said: We aren’t fooling around.
On Friday, April 20, CU-Boulder’s normal academic activity will continue as scheduled, but the following measures will be in place:
- Students, faculty, staff and all CU-Boulder affiliates will need their Buff OneCard IDs to get on, and around, the campus. Those not affiliated with CU-Boulder will not be permitted on campus and face tickets for trespassing. Those cited for trespassing face punishment of up to six months in jail and a $750 fine. District Attorney Stan Garnett has discussed April 20 enforcement operations with CU Police officials. His office will handle the prosecution of those who receive tickets. “As always, the District Attorney’s Office will work to support the efforts of the CU Police Department,” Garnett said.
- For those visitors who have tickets for CU events on April 20 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., or who are participants in academic meetings, symposia, conferences or other officially sanctioned activities, limited access to campus will be provided via a special registration program. Visitors will check in at the CU-Boulder East Campus Administrative and Research Center at 3100 Marine St. Please register for this service by going online to http://www.colorado.edu/april20 beginning Monday, April 16 at 8 a.m. or call the CU information line at 303-492-4636. After 6 p.m., no special access to the campus is required, though visitors should be advised that traffic getting into and out of the campus is likely to be heavy.
- Police will be checking for Buff OneCard IDs, and have checkpoints set up at all major campus entrances.
- Norlin Quad lawn areas will be closed to all people. Anyone, regardless of campus affiliation, who enters these areas may face a ticket for trespassing. Closure signage will be clearly displayed in this area. All areas of the campus – including other fields – will be closed to non-affiliates.
- Visitors will not be allowed to park on campus. Attendants will check those traveling to campus for BuffOne IDs and parking permits.
- CU Police issued tickets for marijuana possession last year. Officers will do the same this year. However, this year people will see a larger presence of officers.
- Those who smoke marijuana can face a ticket, which can result in a $100 fine, revocation of a person’s medical marijuana registry card upon conviction, and sanctions against students who receive tickets by CU’s Office of Student Conduct.
- A large presence of police officers from CU-Boulder and regional agencies will be present. The Colorado State Patrol will conduct enhanced patrols on U.S. 36, Colo. 93, the Diagonal Highway and other highways throughout the day, looking for drivers under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol.
- The Colorado Department of Revenue’s Medical Marijuana Enforcement Division will have a team of officers deployed on campus and throughout Boulder to monitor medical marijuana centers and ensure compliance with licensing regulations.
- CU organizations and academic units have been advised to move non-essential meetings and gatherings that require visitors, partners and stakeholders to more convenient times later in the spring semester.
- Regent Drive will be closed to through traffic from approximately 1:30 to 6 p.m. Buses will be allowed to use Regent Drive, but drivers should plan alternate routes.
- The Buff Bus and RTD Stampede, 209, and J routes will be impacted between the hours of 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Please seehttp://www.colorado.edu/pts/news/index.html for details on how these routes will be altered and/or delayed.
The university announced on April 3 that a concert with the performer Wyclef Jean, sponsored by the CU Student Government in partnership with CU-Boulder’s Program Council, will be hosted at the Coors Events Center. Doors open at 2 p.m. and all CU students with BuffOne cards are invited to attend. The show is expected to end at 7 p.m. No non-CU students will be admitted.
The city of Boulder shut down the Halloween Mall Crawl in 1990 after crowds of over 50,000 became wild, a media circus and put huge financial strains on the city. It is hoped with this new shut down that CU students who want to celebrate 420 will do it quietly and not turn it into a national sensation embarrassing the entire University of Colorado. Parents who see this will be less likely to send their kids to CU and this event sends the wrong message. Which is if you are a doper CU is the place to come.
Drug addiction has been a problem on the CU campus since the late 1960s. Shutting down 420 will help to solve this health issue too.
by BC1 staff
CU News services contributed to this story
“Salmon Fishing in the Yemen” Makes the Impossible Possible
1“Making the Impossible Possible”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is a love story, and I don’t mean the love that fishermen have for fishing, although there is also that.
On the other hand, Steven Wright says in his act, “There is a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore looking like an idiot.”
In this movie, the comment is made that the only thing that fishermen care about is fish, and that they are patient and virtuous.
The fishermen, of course, are patient and virtuous, not the fish.
No, we should remember that fish are so dumb that they can’t tell the difference between a real fly and an artificial fly with a hook in it at the end of a fishing line.
Emily Blunt plays Harriet Chetwode-Talbot, and she has a client who is an avid fisherman, Sheik Muhammed from Yemen, who wants to introduce salmon fishing in his desert country.
So, Harriet contacts the salmon expert in the British Fisheries, Dr. Alfred Jones, played by Ewan McGregor, to ask for his help in fulfilling the dream of the sheik, who naturally has enough money to make it happen.
Dr. Jones turns down Harriet’s request, telling her that the project is fundamentally infeasible.
In the meantime, however, Patricia Maxwell, who is the press secretary for the Prime Minister and who is played by Kristin Scott Thomas, tells her people, “We need a good news story from the Middle East and a big one. We need it now.”
So, with pressure from the top of the government, Dr. Jones is practically blackmailed into working with Harriet to make Sheik Muhammed’s dream come true.
And with two attractive people working closely together, romantic sparks are bound to fly, right?
Not so fast, Dear Audience, because Dr. Jones is married, and Harriet has a serious boyfriend.
Dr. Jones changes his assessment of the project’s success from fundamentally infeasible to theoretically possible, the sheik is willing to pay 50 million pounds, and so the problem now is to make it all happen.
Did I mention that there are dissidents in Yemen who believe that the sheik’s dream of building a river in the desert and stocking it with fish is insulting to Allah?
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen makes the impossible possible in so many different ways, and not just in fishing.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
Not your mother’s math prof to speak at #CU
0Offbeat math professor Edward Burger
to speak at CU-Boulder March 15
If you despise math and the sight of an equation makes you physically ill, Professor Edward Burger of Baylor University and Williams College may be able to heal you during a talk at the University of Colorado Boulder on Thursday, March 15.
Burger’s talk, titled “Zero to Infinity: Great Moments in the History of Numbers,” will be held at 6 p.m. in the Mathematics Building room 100. The talk is free and open to the public and pizza and refreshments will be served afterward. Burger plans to answer a number of questions in his lecture, including whether humans are the only animals that can count, how the desire to count made it possible for William Shakespeare to write his plays, and whether negative numbers were invented to explain Burger’s own checking account balance.
Burger, who is on the record as saying “no one in their right mind would ever go to a math talk,” is not your run-of-the mill math educator. He has worked as a stand-up comedian, wrote jokes for Jay Leno in the late 1980s, starred in an episode of NBC’s “Science of the Winter Olympics” in 2010 that won him a prestigious Telly Award, and most recently is being featured in “The Science of NHL Hockey” on NBC News.
“The talk is intended as whirlwind tour of the history of numbers and watch them grow from practical tools used by ancient shepherds to practical tools used to drive the digital age,” said Burger, who was named was named Vice-Provost of Strategic Educational Initiatives at Baylor University in 2011. “If you love the humanities, sciences, social sciences, medical science, business, engineering or anything involving human thought, this talk is for you.”
Burger is considered by many to be the nation’s leader in math education. In 2006 Reader’s Digest named him “America’s Best Math Teacher.” In 2010 he was named the winner of the Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching by Baylor University, an award that carried a $250,000 prize and is believed to be the largest and most prestigious award in higher education teaching in the nation across all disciplines.
In 2010 the Huffington Post named Burger as one of the world’s 100 “Game-Changers,” a list that included “innovators, visionaries, mavericks and leaders who are re-shaping their fields and changing the world.” He also is an associate editor of the American Mathematical Monthly and of Math Horizons Magazine.
In a 2005 Boston Public Library lecture on topology — the study of the properties of geometric figures or solids that remain unchanged during stretching or bending — he demonstrated that it was possible to tie a six-foot rope snugly around his right ankle and then his left ankle, take off his pants, turn them inside out and put them back on without ever cutting the rope. He once had 600 beach balls poured from the balcony of a packed auditorium at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass. onto the heads of audience members to demonstrate a math principle.
Burger’s deep passion for math is founded on the premise that it should be made lively, fun and educational. “The idea is to entertain and enlighten,” he said. “My goal is get people to have fun thinking, have a better feeling about math, and to look at things in a slightly different way.”
Burger is the author of more than 35 research articles, 12 books and 15 video series. He has delivered more than 400 lectures and appeared on more than 40 radio and TV programs, including ABC News Now and National Public Radio. He has been a visiting mathematics professor at CU-Boulder three times.
His upcoming book, “The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking,” offers students, teachers, business people and life-long learners ways of being more creative and innovative. It is being published this summer by Princeton University Press.
CU student’s project UAV to “shake the ground” of rocket research
0CU team’s efficient unmanned aircraft
jetting toward commercialization
Propulsion by a novel jet engine is the crux of the innovation behind a University of Colorado Boulder-developed aircraft that’s accelerating toward commercialization.
Jet engine technology can be small, fuel-efficient and cost-effective, at least with Assistant Professor Ryan Starkey’s design. The CU-Boulder aerospace engineer, with a team of students, has developed a first-of-its-kind supersonic unmanned aircraft vehicle, or UAV. The UAV, which is currently in a prototype state, is expected to fly farther and faster — using less fuel — than anything remotely similar to date.
The fuel efficiency of the engine that powers the 50-kilogram UAV is already double that of similar-scale engines, and Starkey says he hopes to double that efficiency again through further engineering.
Assistant Professor Ryan Starkey, left, with a team of students and one graduate, looks over = engine model nozzles for a first-of-its-kind supersonic unmanned aircraft vehicle, visible in the simulation on the computer screen, that's expected to fly farther and faster Ñ using less fuel Ñ than anything remotely similar to date. From left: Starkey, Sibylle Walter, doctoral student; Joah Deomm, master's graduate; and Greg Rancourt, master's student. (Photo by Glenn Asakawa/University of Colorado)
Starkey says his UAV could be used for everything from penetrating and analyzing storms to military reconnaissance missions — both expeditions that can require the long-distance, high-speed travel his UAV will deliver — without placing human pilots in danger. The UAV also could be used for testing low-sonic-boom supersonic transport aircraft technology, which his team is working toward designing.
The UAV is intended to shape the next generation of flight experimentation after post-World War II rocket-powered research aircraft, like the legendary North American X-15, have long been retired.
“I believe that what we’re going to do is reinvigorate the testing world, and that’s what we’re pushing to do,” said Starkey. “The group of students who are working on this are very excited because we’re not just creeping into something with incremental change, we’re creeping in with monumental change and trying to shake up the ground.”
Its thrust capacity makes the aircraft capable of reaching Mach 1.4, which is slightly faster than the speed of sound. Starkey says that regardless of the speed reached by the UAV, the aircraft will break the world record for speed in its weight class.
Its compact airframe is about 5 feet wide and 6 feet long. The aircraft costs between $50,000 and $100,000 — a relatively small price tag in a field that can advance only through testing, which sometimes means equipment loss.
Starkey’s technology — three years in the making at CU-Boulder — is transitioning into a business venture through his weeks-old Starkey Aerospace Corp., called Starcor for short. The company was incubated by eSpace, which is a CU-affiliated nonprofit organization that supports entrepreneurial space companies. Starkey’s UAV already has garnered interest from the U.S. Army, Navy, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and NASA. The acclaimed Aviation Week publication also has highlighted Starkey’s UAV.
Starkey says technology transfer is important because it parlays university research into real-life applications that advance societies and contribute to local and global economies.
It also can provide job tracks for undergraduate and graduate students, says Starkey who’s bringing some of the roughly 50 students involved in UAV development into his budding Starcor.
“There are great students everywhere, but one of the reasons why I came to CU was because of how the students are trained. We definitely make sure they understand everything from circuit board wiring to going into the shop and building something,” said Starkey. “It makes them very effective and powerful even as fresh engineers with bachelor’s degrees. They’re very good students to hire. That’s a piece that I’m interested in embracing — finding the really good talent that we have right here in Colorado and pulling it into the company.”
Starkey and his students are currently creating a fully integrated and functioning engineering test unit of the UAV, which will be followed by a critical design review after resolving any problems. The building of the aircraft and process of applying for FAA approval to test it in the air will carry into next year.
Starkey’s continuing fascination with speed first began to burn inside of him when he visited Kennedy Space Center at the age of 5.
“When I teach I tell my class, ‘If it goes fast and gets hot, I’m in it.’ That’s what I want to do. There needs to be fire involved somewhere.”
-C
High-tech, energy saving Boulder company is booming
0Albeo Technologies LED Revenues Climb 50% in 2011, With Solid-State Lighting Retrofits up 300%
Albeo’s High Bay LED Lights provide up to 95% energy savings compared to fluorescent or metal halide (HID)
BOULDER, CO — February 6, 2012 — Albeo Technologies, a leader in solid-state industrial and commercial lighting solutions, announced today significant sales growth in 2011, making it the company’s most profitable year to date. Total company revenue increased 50 percent from 2010 and sales for retrofit and renovation grew 300 percent. All in all, Albeo shipped 26,675 fixtures in 2011 and added 10 new engineering jobs.
Albeo LED fixtures currently light over 7 million square feet of space, the equivalent of 121 American football fields. Much of Albeo’s success in 2011 comes from the company’s ability to offer a wide range of LED lighting solutions that are flexible enough to shine the exact right amount of light in variety of applications. Albeo LED Lighting systems are cost-effective, energy efficient and feature ROI as short as one year. Strong markets for Albeo in 2011, included Fortune 500 data centers, cold storage facilities, parking structures, schools and large manufacturing facilities.
“We are thrilled to be demonstrating such strong and continued growth,” said Jeff Bisberg, Co-Founder and CEO of Albeo Technologies. “Few cleantech startups are growing exponentially. In 2011, our 50% increase in revenues resulted in 10 new “green jobs” in engineering and we expect continued job creation in 2012. We have been profitable for two years now and are grateful to all of our customers who are supporting our success.”
The popularity of Albeo products comes from the ability to fully customize each LED fixture before and after installation. Such modular innovations help architects, facility managers and lighting designers to maximize both energy savings and functionality, while minimizing lighting maintenance costs. In addition, Albeo’s motion sensors and other power saving controls help facilities reduce lighting energy use up to 95%. The average return on investment (ROI) for Albeo products is one to three years. The spectrum of Albeo products range from high bay, low bay and surface mount fixtures, to display cabinets and task lighting.
ABOUT ALBEO TECHNOLOGIES
Albeo Technologies is a leading LED Lighting manufacturer for industrial and commercial buildings, such as cold storage, data centers, retail, schools and businesses. The Albeo products range from high bay and low bay solutions, to linear, surface mount and under cabinet fixtures. The company has lit over 7 million square-feet of space to date and have won 14 independently-judged awards, including 5 from the US Department of Energy (DOE). Albeo’s fully customizable, reliable and low-maintenance LED lighting products offer energy savings up to 95% and an ROI of 1-3 years. For more information, go to www.albeotech.com.
Polluters, politicians run a foul of Moms Clean Air Force
0Julianne Moore Stars in New Video Calling on Mothers To Join the “Moms Clean Air Force”
Actress Asks Mothers to Tell Washington to Stand Up for Clean Air,
Not Protect the Utility and Coal Industries
Washington, DC – Actress and mother Julianne Moore today released a new video calling on parents to join the fight against toxic air pollution. In the video, which endorses a nonpartisan grassroots group called the Moms Clean Air Force, Moore appears along with the heroine of her popular children’s books, Freckleface Strawberry.
Moms are becoming a powerful force in American politics. They are telling Washington that they will not allow their children’s health to be compromised by dirty fossil fuel power plants, the single largest source of pollution in the U.S. The Moms Clean Air Force is a growing community of tens of thousands of moms— from all across the political spectrum and all across the country—uniting to make their voices heard to protect their children’s health.
“Clean air should be above politics,” Moore said. “The discussion about regulations to protect our air has gotten so polarized that we have forgotten an important thing: We all breathe the same air. And all our children suffer because of pollution. We don’t have to choose between a healthy economy and a healthy environment. We can have both. We can have what’s best for all our children.”
President Richard Nixon signed the Clean Air Act into law in 1970 with overwhelming support from Democrats and Republicans; however, the law is now under dangerous political attack. The new mercury and air toxics standards signed in December, after 21 years of planning, are already under political attack, with some politicians in Congress and lobbyists for the utility and coal industries calling to annul it or defund the Environmental Protection Agency.
Responding to this threat, Moms Clean Air Force is bringing parents together in support of a simple idea: That every child has the right to breathe clean air.
Moore became interested in MCAF after Dominque Browning, the group’s Co-Founder and Senior Director and former Editor-in-Chief of House & Garden, contacted her last summer. “I wrote to Julianne, knowing she is a protective mom, asking her if she would help us spread the word about the connection between toxic—and invisible—air pollution and children’s health, and she responded immediately,” Browning said. “Julianne joins a Force of thousands of mothers with real concerns about mercury poisoning, asthma, behavioral issues, and host of other problems associated with polluted air. Together we are determined to clear the air and protect the health of our children and loved ones.”
Moms Clean Air Force is a coalition of mothers including Blythe Danner, Laila Ali, and Jessica Capshaw, and partner groups such as Healthy Child, Healthy World, Treehugger, Green for All, Asthma Moms, Latism (Latinos in Social Media), Alliance of Nurses for a Healthy Environment (ANHE), Care2, BlogHer, and Clever Girls Collective.
Young galaxies are 13-billion light years from home
0
CU-LED STUDY PINPOINTS FARTHEST
DEVELOPING GALAXY CLUSTER EVER FOUND
A team of researchers led by the University of Colorado Boulder has used NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to uncover a cluster of galaxies in the initial stages of construction — the most distant such grouping ever observed in the early universe.
In a random sky survey made in near-infrared light, Hubble spied five small galaxies clustered together 13.1 billion light-years away. They are among the brightest galaxies at that epoch and very young, living just 600 million years after the universe’s birth in the Big Bang. One light-year is about 6 trillion miles.
Galaxy clusters are the largest structures in the universe, comprising hundreds to thousands of galaxies bound together by gravity. The developing cluster, or protocluster, presumably will grow into one of today’s massive galactic “cities” comparable to the nearby Virgo cluster, a collection of more than 2,000 galaxies.
The composite image at right, taken in visible and near-infrared light, reveals the location of five tiny galaxies clustered together 13.1 billion light-years away. The circles pinpoint the galaxies. 
The Wide Field Camera 3 aboard NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope spied the galaxies in a random sky survey. The developing cluster is the most distant ever observed. The young galaxies lived just 600 million years after the universe’s birth in the Big Bang. The average distance between them is comparable to that of the galaxies in the Local Group, consisting of two large spiral galaxies, the Milky Way and Andromeda, and a few dozen small dwarf galaxies. The close-up images at right, taken in near-infrared light, show the puny galaxies. The letters “a” through “e” correspond to the galaxies’ location in the wide-field view at left. Simulations show that the galaxies will eventually merge and form the brightest central galaxy in the cluster, a giant elliptical similar to the Virgo cluster’s M87. Galaxy clusters are the largest structures in the universe, comprising hundreds to thousands of galaxies bound together by gravity. The developing cluster presumably will grow into a massive galactic city, similar in size to the nearby Virgo cluster, a collection of more than 2,000 galaxies. Credit: NASA, ESA, M. Trenti (University of Colorado Boulder and Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, U.K.), L. Bradley (Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore), and the BoRG team
or more information on the galaxies visit the news center at http://hubblesite.org/.
“These galaxies formed during the earliest stages of galaxy assembly, when galaxies had just started to cluster together,” says the study’s leader, Michele Trenti, a research associate at CU-Boulder’s Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy and a newly appointed scientist at the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. “The result confirms our theoretical understanding of the buildup of galaxy clusters. And Hubble is just powerful enough to find the first examples of them at this distance.”
Trenti will present his results Jan. 10 at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Austin, Texas. The study will appear in the Feb. 10 issue of The Astrophysical Journal.
Most galaxies in the universe live in groups and clusters, and astronomers have probed many mature “galactic cities” in detail as far as 11 billion light-years away. But finding clusters in the early phases of construction has been challenging because they are rare, dim and widely scattered across the sky.
“Records are always exciting, and this is the earliest and the most distant developing galaxy cluster that has ever been seen,” said CU-Boulder Professor Michael Shull of the astrophysical and planetary sciences department, a member of the observing team. “We have seen individual galaxies this old and far away, but we have not seen groups of them in the construction process before.”
Last year, a group of astronomers uncovered one distant developing cluster. Led by Peter L. Capak of NASA’s Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, the astronomers discovered a galactic grouping 12.6 billion light-years away with a variety of telescopes, including Hubble. Spectroscopic observations were made with the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii to confirm the cluster’s distance by measuring how much its light has been stretched by the expansion of space.
Trenti’s team used the sharp-eyed Wide Field Camera 3 to hunt for the elusive catch. “We need to look in many different areas because the odds of finding something this rare are very small,” Trenti said. “It’s like playing a game of Battleship: The search is hit and miss. Typically a region has nothing, but if we hit the right spot we can find multiple galaxies.”
Because these distant, fledgling clusters are so dim, the team hunted for the systems’ brightest galaxies. These bright lights act as billboards, advertising cluster construction zones, according to the team. Galaxies at early epochs don’t live alone. From simulations, the astronomers expect galaxies to be clustered together.
Because brightness correlates with mass, the most luminous galaxies pinpoint the location of developing clusters. These powerful light beacons live in deep wells of dark matter, which form the underlying structure in which galaxy clusters form, Trenti said. The team expects many fainter galaxies that were not seen in these observations to inhabit the same neighborhood.
The five bright galaxies spotted by Hubble are about one-half to one-tenth the size of our Milky Way, yet are comparable in brightness. The galaxies are bright and massive because they are being fed lots of gas through mergers with other galaxies, Trenti said. The team’s simulations show that the galaxies will eventually merge and form the brightest central galaxy in the cluster, a giant elliptical similar to the Virgo Cluster’s M87.
The observations demonstrate the progressive buildup of galaxies and provide further support for the hierarchical model of galaxy assembly, in which small objects accrete mass, or merge, to form bigger objects over a smooth and steady but dramatic process of collision and agglomeration. Astronomers have likened the process to streams merging into tributaries, then into rivers and to a bay.
Hubble looked in near-infrared light because ultraviolet and visible light from distant objects have been stretched into near-infrared wavelengths by the expansion of space in these extremely distant galaxies. The observations are part of the Brightest of Reionizing Galaxies or BoRG survey, which is using Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 to search for the brightest galaxies around 13 billion years ago, when light from the first stars burned off a fog of cold hydrogen in a process called reionization.
The team estimated the distance to the newly spied galaxies based on their colors, but the astronomers plan to follow up with spectroscopic observations to confirm their distance.
Without spectroscopic observations, it’s not clear whether the observed galaxies are gravitationally bound yet. The average distance between them is likely comparable to that of the galaxies in the Local Group, consisting of two large spiral galaxies, the Milky Way and Andromeda, and a few dozen small dwarf galaxies.
These observations are pushing Hubble to the limit of its ability. This region, however, will be prime country for future telescopes such as NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, an infrared observatory scheduled to launch later this decade. Webb will see farther into the infrared, allowing it to hunt for even earlier stages of galaxy assembly within 300 million years of the Big Bang.
Shull, also a faculty member at CU-Boulder’s Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy, said the research team will receive an additional 260 orbits of observation time on Hubble to continue the search for more of the fledgling galaxy clusters as part of the BoRG survey. “There is high interest right now in learning if Earth is unique in the universe in its ability to host life,” he said. “Similarly, we are interested to see if these ancient, forming galaxy clusters we have identified are unique, or if there are others out there. I expect that we may find a few more.”
The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute, or STScI, conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy Inc., in Washington, D.C.
For more information on the galaxies visit the news center at http://hubblesite.org/. For more information on CU-Boulder’s CASA visit http://casa.colorado.edu/.
For more information on CU-Boulder’s CASA visit http://casa.colorado.edu/.
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CU team to turn on “green” lights in Haiti
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CU ENGINEERING TEAM TO SUPPORT
GREEN ENERGY IN HAITI
A team of University of Colorado Boulder engineers will travel to Haiti this month to support the growth of green energy on the two-year anniversary of the country’s devastating earthquake.
Engineering professors Alan Mickelson and Mike Hannigan and graduate student Matt Hulse will be in Haiti Jan. 8-16 to collaborate with the Neges Foundation school at Leogane to create a vocational training program on the installation, operation and maintenance of renewable energy systems.
“I’m eager to learn about the people of Haiti and the services that they would like energy systems to provide,” said Hannigan, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering. “Historically, the development of energy systems has shaped nations and economies, so the timing is right to pass along what we have learned about those energy systems that are sustainable.”
The Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake that struck Haiti destroyed what little electricity infrastructure had existed in the country, plunging towns across the country into total darkness and forcing households to rely on high-cost diesel generators for power, according to news reports. As a result, families are unable to study or work at night, and the number of assaults, particularly against women and girls, has increased.
Studies point to Haiti’s great potential for renewable energy, including solar, hydro and wind power. “The present lack of a Haitian power grid cries out for a distributed solution — that is, one that grows from small, localized, renewable energy sources,” said Mickelson, associate professor of electrical, computer and energy engineering.
To address these issues, the Engineering for Developing Communities project will:
- Develop a curriculum for vocational training on the operation and maintenance of self-contained, adaptable power sources, and electrical operations and maintenance with a focus on green energy systems.
- Build local capacity to provide vocational training on renewable energy systems using a “train-the-trainers” approach.
- Identify a viable system to create sustainable access to renewable energy that will meet basic household energy needs.
- Develop a strategy for the sustainable scale-up and replication of energy and infrastructure vocational training to support reconstruction efforts, with a focus on private sector investment.
About $35,000 has been provided for the initiative by CU-Boulder’s Mortenson Center for Engineering in Developing Communities, the IEEE Foundation and the CU-Boulder Outreach Committee. The Mortenson Center is seeking additional funding to build upon the initiative and develop additional vocational training curriculum on sustainable and disaster-resistant design and construction.
The Mortenson Center was founded to promote integrated, participatory and sustainable solutions to the engineering challenges of the developing world, with a focus on clean drinking water, sanitation and hygiene; energy; sustainable and disaster-resistant building materials and shelter; and cook stoves and indoor air quality. For more information, go tohttp://ceae.colorado.edu/mc-edc.
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